The follow-up story to "Continuum". Harry and Ginny have returned to 1998, but nothing is as they remembered or hoped it would be. What happened that was so awful it made Ginny vow to never see Harry again and move out of the Burrow, leave Hogwarts and move to France? Can Ginny forgive Harry enough to save his life?

The day before the Potters were to leave for the rehabilitation hospital Potter Manor, Fair Garden, Grimmauld Place and the Black’s home in Quimper, France were a flutter with activity. After much discussion and strategising it was decided that the four youngest Potter children would be staying with the Blacks in Scotland. Due to the closeness of their wedding however, Draco and Elisabeth were moving back to France since the ceremony and reception would be held at the Quimper house. Clothes, toys and the like were moved over for the Potter kids while at the same time Draco was moving his things out of the large room that he’d shared with his brother since they’d moved into the house nearly a decade before. Bastien was moving into the traditional Black family home. He appreciated it's proximity to both The Ministry of Magic and St. Mungo's. He even was happy to have the family elf, Kreacher, as company.

It was a bittersweet day for the two boys. They were both moving into their own homes; although Draco would only live in the large house in France until after the wedding when he would then share the small house he’d purchased outside of Paris with his new wife. While they both knew that moving out of their parents’ home signified their truly having reached adulthood, it didn’t change that they were both slightly saddened that this would no longer be “their room”. Once their things were moved out it would be converted for Chrissie and Sitara to share. Ron and Neville had both come to help with the packing and moving.

“Mum said that you guys should take your blankets. The girls want everything in here done in pinks,” Bastien explained as he pointed to the Quidditch team blankets that had been lovingly knit for all of them by Grandma Louise as Louise Malfoy was known to them all before she’d passed.

“Good thing yours is for the Canons there Ron,” Neville teased as he lifted his light blue one and handing off the bright orange to his friend. “You’d have to hide it otherwise. Doubt that a professional Quidditch player should have paraphernalia for a team that isn’t their own.”

“If Chudley hadn’t signed me, Mum would have needed to redecorate my whole room. At least this way she can keep it as it, although she’s brought some of the stuff down to the sitting room to show her team spirit,” he explained. Ron was the new reserve Keeper for the Canons. Given how poorly their current Keeper could see, the papers were speculating that Ron would be moved up to the starting position rather quickly.

“When do you move into your flat again?” Draco asked.

“A week before your wedding. Love my parents, but living with them is...at least when I was young there were brothers and Ginny around. Now it’s just them, my uncle, Bill and me and Bill is never there,” Ron explained.

“Yeah, the problem wouldn’t be that she won’t let Hermione stay over, would it?” Bastien sniggered as he threw pairs of socks either into a crate or into the rubbish bin.

“Uh,” Ron stammered turning a clashing shade of red from his hair, “that’s not it the issue at all.”

“Sure it isn’t,” Draco continued the playful banter. “Sent you any more howlers when you’ve missed curfew?”

“No, once was more than enough. Nothing kills your mood like your Mum yelling at you. Hermione sets an alarm in her kitchen so that I’m out of there before Mum can even consider sending another one. Seriously kills the romance when your girl is watching the clock.” The group had a good laugh and continued with the packing until nearly everything was done and the room looked strangely devoid of any personality. Ron picked up the Pride of Portree blanket that had been on the bunk Harry used and held it gingerly.

“Anyone headed over there?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Draco responded. “I need to talk with Uncle James about when they’re planning to return, just to make sure that they’ll be at the wedding. I can take it over when I go.”

“Do you think this hospital will help?” Neville asked, bringing up the subject that the boys had been avoiding for weeks. “I mean your Mum can’t do anything,” he said looking at Draco and Bas, “and my Mum says that Mrs. Potter is losing hope. Your sister looks like she hasn’t slept in a year.” His gaze drifting to Ron. “They’re both falling apart and here we’re supposed to be starting out on these new adventures of our lives and Harry and Ginny are just wasting away. What’s going to happen if Harry never gets better?”

Bastien sat down on the end of what had been his bed and looked at the rest of the quartet. Seeing no answers in their eyes, he spoke. “We can’t think that way. We’re not even sure what happened to Harry, but if anyone can figure this out, it’s our parents. I know that a team is working on it in my department at work, as well as somewhere in the Department of Mysteries. Someone is bound to find an answer, eventually. Harry’s got to get better, we can’t think any differently.”

The boys all nodded and without being told to, shrunk and lifted the last of the crates, carrying them from the room that they’d spent so much of their childhoods in. There really wouldn’t be any going back now. Regardless of what Bas had just said, the blind optimism of youth had succumbed to the harsher light of adulthood. None of them really felt as if their friend would ever be the same.

Later that afternoon Draco and Sirius returned from their errands. There were some papers that needed to be filed, and Draco had wanted to retrieve a few things from the family vault, most importantly were the wedding bands used by his Grandma Louise and her husband Abraxas. He’d promised her that he’d use the rings when he married. She had explained that they not only were charmed, but that she would personally be watching over him and his wife this way. Draco thought it was a good omen to have his beloved grandmother watching over his precious bride.

The house was unusually quiet when the pair came through the Floo. About the only time the house was quiet was in the middle of the night, there were just too many children for the home to be otherwise. Sirius looked at his eldest son with concern, and then heard the shuffled step of someone coming from the kitchen toward them. Sirius was surprised to see his mother-in-law Rhosyn Hodgson coming down the hall.

“Ma, what are you doing here?” he asked as he draped his long arms over her shoulders and down her back. The Hodgson matriarch was shorter than his wife, barely breaking the five foot mark. She wrapped her arms around his mid-section and gave him a squeeze before releasing him to hug her eldest grandchild.

“Came up for the next few weeks. Anwen looked awful when she visited last and with Sitara moving in with ya and the Potter kids staying here...Anwen needs some extra hands. Rose Evans will be here tomorrow. Draco sweetheart, aren’t you eating? You’re far too skinny. Look like your Da there,” Rhosyn complained. Sirius chuckled as Anwen’s mother was always attempting to feed him.

“Why is Lily’s Mum coming?” Sirius asked confused about her statement about Rose.

“She wanted them to stay with her, but those four youngins are too much for her, especially now that Winchester has passed. We figured that if the grandkids were all going to be here this summer, then we would be as well. Anwen protested until I was here. Charlie came and got me and Apparated me up here. Wild ride, but better than the train,” she explained in her lilting Welsh accent while she headed back toward the kitchen. Sirius had long ago learned Anwen’s stubborn streak came from her mother.

“Where is Anwen now? And where are all the kids?” Sirius jogged the few steps to catch up to her, amazed at how quickly someone with such short legs could move when she needed to.

“Anwen’s upstairs asleep. She got called over to the Potter’s just after you left and now she’s exhausted. I sent all the kids outside to play, telling them that if they let their Ma get forty winks I’d have biscuits for them later. Need to get them out of the oven,” she explained.

“Grandma, are those your gingersnaps?” Draco asked excitedly as the tangy smell hit his nose as they entered the large kitchen.

“Of course my sweet boy, now go outside with your brothers and sisters and keep them in line and I’ll be out in a while,” she dismissed the young man and even though Sirius could tell that he wanted to complain at being sent outside like a child, he knew that his grandmother meant business so he didn’t. Sirius watched him leave, working hard to quash his urge to laugh.

“I’m going up to check on Anwen,” Sirius told Rhosyn.

“You do that,” she said even as she busied herself with the dough. “That girl is going to kill herself all in the name of helping people. Maybe you can talk some sense into her.”

“Ma if I could I would have years ago,” he sighed as he nicked a biscuit and then dashed from the room even as the woman huffed at him. Before he went upstairs, he kicked his heavy boots off and removed the robes that he’d worn while out doing official family business this afternoon. He stood stoically, waiting for something. He was rewarded when he saw a light purple mist slither over toward his footwear. His boots began to march themselves over to the small alcove near the door and onto the boot mat that was nestled beneath the hooks holding their rain-slickers and lightweight cloaks, the mist then disappeared. Shaking his head at his wife’s prodigious skill he took the stairs two at a time until he came to their room.

Anwen was curled up on her side of the bed, her hand resting on his pillow, looking similar to the position that she slept in when they were together. She’d once told him that she learned to sleep this way after her attack, knowing if she could feel his heart beating beneath her hand when she was startled awake in her sleep, she knew that she was alright and it was only a dream. She implicitly trusted him to protect her, always had and he vowed he would never give her reason to doubt that trust. He just wished he could do more for her now. Her inability to help Harry and Ginny was making her mental. It was rare that she was able to find a puzzle she couldn’t work out. Her failure here was causing her so much pain. He knew that the physical action of doing so much Legilimency was excruciating as well, since she denied the pain far too vehemently.

He gently sat down on the bed, hoping to snuggle up with her and hold her as she slept, but when the mattress shifted she began to stir. As her eyes fluttered open she smiled at him, the special smile he knew was reserved alone for his eyes.

“Hi,” she whispered, lifting her hand so that he could lie next to her. He didn't need to be asked twice. He lay down on the bed, one arm around her shoulders, the other to her waist. She knotted one hand into his hair, the other she laid on his chest, fingers splayed over his heart.

“She and Mama Evans want to help. Who am I to argue?” There was a resigned air to her voice

“Who indeed? I think it's a good thing, eleven kids is quite enough in one house for one summer.”

“'Tis true,” Anwen added sadly. “I wish it wasn't necessary.”

“I know,” Sirius commiserated as he gripped her tighter to him. “What did they need you for?” There wasn't need to identify further, the problems with Harry and its effect on Ginny were nearly always part of their conversations.

“Lily was convinced that she'd heard Ginny say something,” Anwen explained. “I went to try to see if it was true. The problem is that I taught Ginny her Occlumency skills after the accident and unless she wants me to, there's no way I'm going to get into some of her deeper memories. Everything concerning Harry is packed very, very deeply and securely. I think Lil's just grasping at straws now.” The sadness in Anwen's voice over the distress of her best friend was palpable. “So, did you and Draco get everything taken care of at the bank?”

“We did,” Sirius explained. “He took the few bits of furniture that he wanted out of the Malfoy vault and then had it sealed again. His primary accounts are now all the Paris branch, and they're ready to have Elisabeth added after they're wed. The goblins reminded him that any time he wanted to go to the house they would be happy to accompany him, but he declined the invitation. It's not like he's ever going to live there. If it weren't that he had memories of Louise there, I'm sure he'd just sell it off,” Sirius explained and Anwen nodded against him. “Oh, and there was a letter from Azkaban for him as well.” Contact between Mrs. Malfoy and Draco was severed when she was imprisoned. As a sign of good faith between Sirius and his cousin, he'd allowed the prison to send correspondences to the bank and from there they'd be forwarded.

“Oh, poor Draco,” Anwen sighed, knowing that her son was always pained when any mention of his birth parents occurred.

“She wants to see him. He isn't sure what to do. Part of him just wants to go, let her say her bit and then be done with her. He's also afraid that it will hurt your feelings if he does.”

“My feelings? Why would I be hurt?”

“He knows that she hates you and he doesn't want to hear her disparage you. He's also worried that you'll think he misses her or that you weren't enough of a Mum for him or something. He couldn't really explain it, but that's the heart of it, I think. Lucius being dead makes things easier when it comes to me, I suppose.”

“Sirius, yes Narcissa hates me, but it's not like I'm fond of her either. She gave me a gift, however. She gave birth to my eldest son, and nothing she ever says or does will take that away from me. He is so much more my child than hers, and if he needs to see her to close that chapter of his life, then so be it. Please, I know he won't ever discuss it with me, tell him how I feel.”

“I will my love, I will,” Sirius promised.

“So,” Anwen said with a slight shove on her husband’s chest to get up, “did he get the rings?”

“He did and they were examined and polished before we left the bank. Targnof said the enchantments were in place and strong, and that they'd work just as our rings do.” Sirius lifted his wife's hand to kiss her ring-clad fourth finger when she decided to bolt up in bed in excitement with a squeal. Unfortunately, her shoulder came into contact with his nose with an uncomfortable thud.

“Oh, Sirius, sweetheart, I am so sorry,” Anwen said, her hands going to his cheeks while both of his hands were now cradling his nose. “Let me see,” she asked and he shifted his fingers slightly so that she could see into the cup of his hands. There was blood under his nose and it bent to the left in an odd way.

“Hold still,” she told him, raising her hand over his nose and gently wiggling her fingers. The blood evaporated and Sirius could feel the cartilage slide back into place.

“That was...” Sirius mumbled, rubbing his nose, “what had you so excited that you broke my nose?”

“The rings, Sirius, the rings. Remember when we got married?”

“Yes, love,” he patronised her, still rubbing his sore schnoz, “I was there.”

“Yes, I know you were, let me finish what I was saying. After the magical wedding, when we were all at the house, we were talking with Harry and Ginny about their wedding?”

“Anwen, I was cursed the day of our magical wedding by my deranged cousin; there are gaps in my memory of that day. Anyway, if you say that we talked with Harry and Ginny about their wedding, then I'm sure that we did.” Anwen shot him a frustrated look at his attitude and Sirius leaned over and kissed her. “Sorry, sweetheart, I'm listening.”

“Ginny told me that they'd used Harry's grandparents’ rings to be married. If they were Julia Potter's enchanted Society rings then we might have been going about this all wrong,” she excitedly explained, sliding off the bed and dashing over to the chest that she kept at the foot of the bed.

“Anwen, what are you doing?”

“I'm looking for the photo album we keep in here, the one with the pictures of Harry and Ginny or Harrison and Regina as they're labelled. Had to hide it from the kids once they were old enough to figure out that the resemblance of our friends to their friends was far too great,” she explained, running her hand over the lock and watching it slide open. “I need to see if we have a picture to take over there and let James confirm what I think is going on here.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” he confessed, “I'm still trying to get over your breaking of my nose a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, well I put it right back in place,” she mumbled, her head buried inside the trunk. “Ah, ha, I do have one,” she excitedly yelled, removing the yellowed picture from the album. “Come on, we need to go to Potter Manor.”

“Uh, okay,” Sirius said as he slid from the bed, still dizzy from having his nose broken and reset in less than a minute. Even with her bad leg, Anwen could move fast when she wanted to, and she had Disapparated herself out of their bedroom and to the kitchen before Sirius knew what was going on. Anwen was telling her Ma that they were headed to Potter Manor and she wasn't sure when they'd be back. Mrs. Hodgson took it in stride, saying she'd make sure the kids were all fed and put to bed. Their new au pair, Petronella, was already moved in and making herself at home with the children. Between the two of them, they'd get the children fed and to bed. Draco told his Mum he'd stay to help as well. Anwen thanked them and hurried to the Floo.

***

James Potter was in his office at Potter Manor, finalising some payments that were due while they were scheduled to be away. Between Bill Weasley and Sirius, he knew that the business expenses would be handled, but these were personal matters. He looked up from his desk, surprised when Anwen and Sirius came through the Floo, since he wasn't expecting to see them again until morning when they dropped the children off.

“Anwen, Sirius, what are you doing here?” he asked as he left his office and walked over to them. He could see that Anwen was positively buzzing with excitement. He didn't think that he'd seen her quite this keyed up in many years. She suddenly resembled his eleven year old friend more than his thirty-five year old cousin.

“James, look at this picture,” she said, thrusting it into his hands.

“Where is this from? When is this from?” He muttered, staring at the yellowed photograph.

“It's from a photo album that I keep in our bedroom. It's of our magic wedding, look at Harry's hand. Do you recognize his wedding ring?” Anwen was getting impatient. Sirius came up and wrapped his arm around her waist, standing behind her, still unsure of where she was going with whatever idea was going through her head.

“Wait, that looks like...” James mumbled before he strode across the hall and into his office. He reached his desk and opened the top drawer, removing a magnifying glass from inside and looking in carefully at the picture.

“Anwen, I do, the ring Harry's wearing, it was my father's. Those are the enchanted wedding rings my parents wore. I didn't realise they'd used them. How would he have gotten them?”

“I don't know, and the only person who might know isn't able to speak right now. What I need to see is if I can get Ginny to tell me about their wedding. If they were married in a magical ceremony, with these enchanted rings...oh, we could have made things just so much worse.” Anwen was already heading out the of the room and toward the stairs, running into Lily as she was coming down.

“Anwen, Sirius what are you doing here? Is there something wrong?”

“No Lil, everything might actually be right,” Anwen said as she started up the stairs as quickly as she could, which wasn't all that fast since she could only bend one leg and then make the other catch up.

“Can someone explain to me what's going on?” Lily asked confused.

“All I know is I got home from the bank with Draco after he picked up the wedding rings for he and Elisabeth and Anwen got excited about something. She broke my nose, dug around for a picture and then came here,” Sirius explained.

“She broke your nose?” James asked, thoroughly confused.

“I fixed it right away,” Anwen threw back, nearly to the top of the stairs. Sirius nodded and shrugged at the same time, nearly as bewildered by her behaviour as the others were.

“I think she's figured something out about Harry and Ginny, but she hasn't told me what,” he confessed and Lily's face broke out into joy at those words.

“I knew that she could do it,” Lily nearly cheered, her faith and hope seemingly restored.

The adults entered the room, Harry still prone in the bed, the medi-witch confused as to why they were all there and Ginny still sitting nearly comatose in her chair. Anwen got between Harry and Ginny and knelt down so that her eyes were only inches from Ginny's.

“Ginny, I need you to concentrate on my voice and look at me,” Anwen demanded. “I need you to tell me about when you married Harry. I need you to find those memories and tell me about that day. I can't bring him back if you don't tell me.”

“Married?” The medi-witch asked. “I didn't know they were married.” Before anyone said any more, James took his wand out and charmed the memory right out of the witch, then suggesting that she head downstairs for some tea. Thankfully she followed his suggestion before Anwen said any more.

“Ginny, please, I know you're in there, and I know that you want Harry back, please help me do that.”

***

In her mind Ginny could hear Anwen speaking to her, but she could also hear Harry.

“Harry, I think I should help her?” Ginny thought at Harry.

“What if she's just trying to make me go away?” He responded.

“She wants to know about our wedding, that doesn't sound like going away, Harry. Our wedding was from the first life, please, I want you back.” Anwen's voice was getting stronger, clearer. She no longer sounded as if she was speaking to Ginny through a tube of some sort. Ginny took her pleadings to heart.

Anwen took Ginny's hands in hers. “Please, Ginny honey, find any memory that you have of when you married Harry. Give me a clue, just a little one, please.” The young woman couldn't stand that her friend was begging and relented as best as she could. Ginny imagined that she was opening a curtain, like what happened before a show. She'd been concentrating so hard on keeping things secret that being able to share it, to bring down her shields was a relief. Ginevra Molly Weasley relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever and let her friend who felt more like a sister peer into her mind.

For Anwen, the Burrow suddenly appeared in her mind's eye. She knew that this was Ginny's mind, she'd been in it before and had smiled at the way the girl had organised her thoughts. From experience, she knew that the memories of Harry were located what would be Ginny's bedroom. Anwen reached out, opened the door to the house and let herself in and began to climb the ramshackle staircase to the landing outside of Ginny's bedroom.

Anwen had seen the girl’s real life room enough times to recognize the things in it, and was surprised to find a second trunk tucked along the side of the bedroom. This wasn't something that had a correlation in the real world. It was hard to open, as if the lock was somehow rusted or it had been sealed shut. Instinctively knowing that she'd need more strength than she had on her own, she reached out to where her husband had last been. Sirius was all the strength that Anwen would ever need.

“What's she doing?” Lily asked, sounding anxious and impatient.

“We don't know, but she's doing the best she can, Lil. Be patient and let her do what she needs to,” James comforted even as Sirius took his wife's hand and wove his fingers together with hers. He brought his head down to hers and let his lips caress her crown.

Inside Ginny's mind, Anwen tugged again at the lock on the trunk, but it was still refusing to budge. She was convinced this was where the key lie.

“Ginny, sweetheart, you've got to help me get in,” Anwen pleaded. “Open the trunk for me, honey. I'm not going to hurt you.”

Ginny was still concerned that when Anwen discovered her secret she was going to be upset, or worse, she would do something to make Harry go away, but she overcame her hesitations and concentrated on the trunk opening. Ginny knew what was inside, knew that she'd be in at least some trouble for holding onto these memories the way she did, but she couldn't bring herself to destroy them or to let them slip through her fingers. They meant too much to her.

The top on the chest finally popped open, and Anwen was able to lift it, only slightly surprised that Ginny had kept her memories of her first life and Harry safe. Some were recognisable to Anwen through her trips into Harry's fractured psyche, others were not. It didn't take her long to find the memories of their wedding for they were particularly cherished by Ginny and had been carefully placed in a floral-covered album. It was her wedding book.

Anwen skimmed through Harry's arrival at the Burrow. He looked horrid and while it was one thing to know that someone had spent months on the run, it was entirely another to see the effects of living as such. Ginny's simultaneous relief and irritation were overwhelming and they caused Anwen to shift back on her heels, losing her balance and ending up on her bum. Anwen didn't open her eyes, nor did she break the concentration she had through the Legilimency.

“Sweetheart, are you okay?” Sirius whispered, but the lack of response from Anwen let him know that whatever discomfort she was in wasn't important to her.

Anwen watched Harry's tearful proposal and Ginny's similarly wet response. He explained that the rings were given to him by Sirius who had been given them by his Dad the day of his baptism. Harry had been keeping them in his trunk for over two years, Sirius telling him that he'd one day give them to Ginny, apparently before Harry even recognised his feelings. Anwen got a wide smile that her husband was able to see love in others, even when he'd been so dense about it in his own life.

She flipped through some moments of intimacy between the couple. They didn't need Anwen watching them celebrate their engagement. She stopped her rapid skimming when she came to a view of Minerva talking about The Society and the roles the rings played for the women. Anwen's hunch was right, the rings were indeed enchanted; the exact nature of the enchantments, however, wasn't discussed.

Anwen was so gleeful in her realisation that she failed to truly notice the window and the view outside of Ginny's room. There was something outside the Burrow that did not belong there.

The brown-haired witch pulled herself from Ginny's mind and opened her eyes with a large smile before she leaned in and kissed the girl's forehead. “Excellent work, Ginny, you did exactly what I needed. If I'm right, I think I know how to save you and Harry.”

“What? You can...” Lily stammered. “What did you see? What does she know?”

“Lily, give the woman some space,” James attempted to calm his wife, but he wanted to know as badly as she did what his cousin had found.

“First, thankfully Ginny didn't let the memories fade of their first life. I'm not sure how she did it, but she protected them quite well,” Anwen explained as she shifted her legs around so that she could get herself off the floor. Seeing what she was doing, Sirius helped her up. “Harry and Ginny were indeed married with Julia and Andrew's enchanted rings. Minerva was there and confirmed that they are enchanted, but the only enchantment that she mentioned was the inability of the wearer to betray the other. We need to find out exactly what enchantments are upon them and what the consequences are. She also performed the ceremony, using the Rite of Magical Binding that we were both married with. How none of us thought to ask about this before we sent them back...” Anwen trailed off, the last sentence conveying her irritation over this lapse.

“Why would that have mattered?” Lily asked, “Dumbledore said that there was reason to assume that they would be married when they arrived here.”

“Legally he was right,” James replied, speaking as if a light went off and could put part of this puzzle together. “We didn't take into account the magic, however. How could we have all been so stupid?”

“What are you talking about?” Sirius asked. “What is there other than being legally or not legally married?”

“Magical marriage passes through time and space, unlike a legal one. It was done as a protection, since we can travel through time. Once they were married magically, they were married forever. That's why you don't do a magical wedding unless you're certain you want to spend forever with someone. Breaking one is far more difficult than just getting a divorce,” James went on to explain, but he could see the confused look on his wife's face.

“So, they've really been married, all this time?” She asked.

“Yes, and unfortunately the actions that our time line Harry took have been forcing the enchantments to kick in,” James explained, irritated and disgusted. “We need to find out what they were exactly. The rings are at Gringotts. The goblins should be able to read them and tell me what's been placed upon them.”

“I also think we need to speak with Mimi,” Anwen piped up, “she's the only one of the old guard still around that can tell us about the ceremony that she might have done on them. I mean, we were married with the rite, but honestly, I don't remember much except how handsome Sirius was. Knowing everything will give us a better chance of being able to undo whatever mess they're in.”

“Why don't you take care of going to Hogwarts and seeing if she can come down,” James suggested, “I'll go to the bank and retrieve the rings and find out about the enchantments. We'll meet back here in say an hour and a half?”

“We'll see if Remus and Eva can come back with us as well. We're going to need his insight to figure out how to rectify this,” Sirius added and they all nodded.

“What about Albus?” Lily asked and Anwen looked away. It was their child, their choice, but Anwen was against involving him.

James caught the pained look on her face before she masked it. “Let's wait and see if we need it.” He left the room with Sirius and Anwen, leaving Lily behind with Harry and Ginny. She hugged her son, feeling certain that they were close to bringing him home and then went and hugged her son's wife.

“Thank you, for whatever it is that you've been doing,” she whispered in the girl’s ear, “thank you for keeping him alive and safe.” Hope was alive and growing in Lily's chest, something that she hadn't felt in so long. She nearly missed the corners of the girls mouth curl up into the faintest of smiles.